I just released a new Drop Login plugin for Joomla. This is inspired by various extensions I found for Joomla which don't really work the way we wanted and so this plugin was born.

This is the plugin in use at the top of this site. I am using the x5 login box module for this which I have modified slightly.

As you can see, when you click the login link a panel will drop down and a login form will be shown. Once you log into the site it will show a Dashboard link and the Login link will turn into a Logout link and you can see the x5 module's logout button rather than the login form. You can click the links to switch between the two panels. You can click the link of the currently displayed panel, the X button, or just click anywhere else on the page other than the panel to close it.

I have simply placed the user menu with links to edit their profile in the Dashboard of the Drop Login plugin for when users are logged in but you can add more extravagant things to it if you like.

Click here for a list of features and to download the Drop Login plugin for Joomla.